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        <title>Prerequisites / Learn Vimscript the Hard Way</title>
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                <h1><a href="/">Learn Vimscript the Hard Way</a></h1>
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<li><a href="#prerequisites">Prerequisites</a><ul>
<li><a href="#creating-a-vimrc-file">Creating a Vimrc File</a></li>
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<h1 id="prerequisites">Prerequisites</h1>
<p>To use this book you should have the latest version of Vim installed, which is
version 7.3 at the time of this writing.  New versions of Vim are almost always
backwards-compatible, so everything in this book should work fine with anything
after 7.3 too.</p>
<p>Nothing in this book is specific to console Vim or GUI Vims like gVim or MacVim.
You can use whichever you prefer.</p>
<p>You should be comfortable editing files in Vim.  You should know basic Vim
terminology like "buffer", "window", "normal mode", "insert mode" and "text
object".</p>
<p>If you're not at that point yet you should go through the <code>vimtutor</code> program,
use Vim exclusively for a month or two, and come back when you've got Vim burned
into your fingers.</p>
<p>You'll also need to have some programming experience.  If you've never
programmed before check out <a href="http://learnpythonthehardway.org/">Learn Python the Hard
Way</a> first and come back to this book when
you're done.</p>
<h2 id="creating-a-vimrc-file">Creating a Vimrc File</h2>
<p>If you already know what a <code>~/.vimrc</code> file is and have one, go on to the next
chapter.</p>
<p>A <code>~/.vimrc</code> file is a file you create that contains some Vimscript code.  Vim
will automatically run the code inside this file every time you open Vim.</p>
<p>On Linux and Mac OS X this file is located in your home directory and named
<code>.vimrc</code>.</p>
<p>On Windows this file is located in your home folder and named <code>_vimrc</code>.</p>
<p>To easily find the location and name of the file on <em>any</em> operating system, run
<code>:echo $MYVIMRC</code> in Vim.  The path will be displayed at the bottom of the
screen.</p>
<p>Create this file if it doesn't already exist.</p></div>

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